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FINNISH NATIONAL TEAM

National Team 2004 in Slovenia.

ECC REPRESENTATIVE CHAMPIONSHIPS 2004

Official ECC Tournament page: http://www.cricketeurope.net/ECC/DATABASE/2004/TOURNAMENTS/EUROREPCHAMS/about.shtml

FINLAND BEAT SLOVENIA (August 20th 2004)

Finaland beat Slovenia in their last game of the tournament, but unbeaten Croatia took the tournament victory and qualified to play in the next European Championships (2nd Division).

Finland 224-3 (35.0 overs, Nadeem Quereishi 56, Timo Ilva 54 n.o., Petteri Moilanen 35)
Slovenia 172-8 (35.0 overs, Amrik Bhatia 4-24)

Scorecard on the ECC page.

FINLAND TRASH BULGARIA (August 19th 2004)

Today Finland scored 280-2 including 137 n.o. by Petteri Moilanen, then bowled out Bulgaria for 82.
http://www.cricketeurope.net/DATABASE/2004/SCORECARDS/10074.shtml

FINLAND LOST TO CROATIA (August 17th 2004)

Finland lost to Croatia by 76 runs in a game that probably was the tournament decider. Croatia opened strongly posting figures 153-6 in their 35 overs. Finland struggled with the bat and only scored 77 runs before being bowled out in the 27th over. The strongest Finnish player of the day was Nadeem Quereshi, who took 4 wickets and scored 22 runs.

Scorecard on the ECC page.

FINLAND BEAT SWITZERLAND (August 16th 2004)

Switzerland managed to scrape together 98 runs before being all out in the last over (35th). Finland reached their target in the 27th over. The best Finnish performer was Julian Roach, who bowled 2-19 and batted 35 not out. Also Ghautam Bhaskar (3-17) and Sunny Sood (1-7) did very well in bowling.

Scorecard on the ECC page.

FINLAND BEAT LUXEMBOURG IN THEIR OPENING GAME (August 15th 2004)

Finland opened the batting with 182-7 of 35.0 overs. Petteri Moilanen was the highest scorer with 40. Luxembourg only reached 114 before being bowled out in the 30th over. Captain Kari Turunen showed the way with bowling figures of 3-14 and Sunny Sood helped with 3-31.

Scorecard on the ECC page.

The main event for the National team this season is the European Representative Championships 2004 in Ljubljana, Slovenia, 15-20 August. The other five participating countries are: Bulgaria, Croatia, Luxembourg, Slovenia and Switzerland. Poland and Slovakia withdrew from the tournament.

The Finnish Squad in Ljubljana:
Kari Turunen (Captain)
Anil "Sunny" Sood (Vice-Captain)
Amrik Bhatia
Janne Lumme
Julian Roach
Petteri Moilanen
Timo Ilva
Michael Pegg
Sebastian Knight
Hugh Fitzpatrick
Abbas Khan
Gautam Bhaskar
Nadeem Quereshi
Manager: Sanjeev Kad

SEASON 2003

The team participated in the ECC Notts Sport® Trophy 2003 (ECC B-League) in Austria. Finland (188-5) got a flying start to the tournament by beating Portugal in the opening match. Portugal played in the final in 2001. Next Finland faced Malta. Finland batted first and scored 180-8 of 35 overs. Malta reached their target in their 32nd over, scoring 184-2 and winning by eight wickets.There was still hope to reach the semis, but Austria claimed the best 2nd place team spot on run rate, with a 0.1 difference to Finland. Finland recovered well from their disappointment of not qualifying to the semi-finals and took a convincing victory over Luxembourg in the ECC Trophy Plate competition. Luxembourg were all out for 84 in the 31st over and it took Finland just 11.3 overs to reach their target. Next, Finland met Portugal for a second time, but were not able to produce the same result twice. Portugal won the toss, elected to bat and scored 278-4. Finland only reached 180-6 and ended up in the 7th place play-off game against Spain. Finland lost to Spain in their last game. Spain were 170-all out, but Finland failed to capitalise and were all out for 140. Finland finished 8th in the tournament and plays in the Representative Championships next season. National Team 2003 in the picture above, back row from left: Andrew Armitage (manager), Julian Roach, Michael Pegg (wk), Dan Taavitsainen, Sebastian Knight, Ansar Chaudhary, Panu Nikoskinen, Sanjeev Kad (umpire), Simon Rodgerson. Front row from left: Yasir Abdul-Quadir (scorer), Janne Lumme (wk), Anil Sood (vice-captain), Kari Turunen (captain), Scott Thurling, Timo Ilva, Amrik Bhatia. Missing absent : Mikael Berglund.

PREVIOUS SEASONS

Formed under ECC guidelines, the Finnish National team played its first friendly Internationals in 1999 against local rivals Estonia. In 2000 Finland competed successfully in its inaugural Representative Festival in Austria, and returned 2001 to claim 7th place in its inaugural ECC B-League competition. 2002 saw another Representative festival, this time in Zagreb, and Finland took their first tournament victory.